Originally I was searching for the name Whitzenhunt, then  I remembered writing it down as a kid. Somehow, my years in Germany had muddled my recollections. Whizen is a type of joke as well as Witz Anyway, that's why I could never find the name listed anywhere, I had misspelled it! 

Sept, 2000... I have made no headway on the internet. I know that she spoke German as her first language. All the references I have found so far go back too early. I have read that many German/Swiss [Whitzenhunt is listed as both Swiss and German] settlements in Louisiana, Texas, Okla. and Ark. kept their native language well into the 20th century. Fredricksburg and Bastrop Texas are good examples, the elder population of these areas still speak English with an accent just as the Cajuns in La. do.

Nov 2000... I know little about Lura's mother, except what I remember of her. Since she died when I was around 5 years old, that is almost nothing. I remember driving to Oklahoma to visit her regularly, then the visits just stopped. No one ever explained to me that she had died.

I remember the warmth and sweetness of her aroma and how it felt to be held by her. I remember following her around as she cooked or teased the family.

One afternoon my father was sitting in the cool shade of her back yard, talking to someone sitting in another chair. I was playing in the grass. Grandma opened the back door and held out a shiny red apple,  "Leon? Ich habben one appfel left. One appfel won't make nothing. Maybe I just throw it away."

While they were discussing the merits of keeping it or throwing it away, I was jumping up and down, yelling, "I'll eat it!" 

They let me get all riled up before they feigned to notice me for the first time. "Why, why didn't we think of that? Betty Ellen can eat the apple," Grandma laughed as she winked at Daddy and tossed the apple to him so he could give it to me.

Grandma ran a small general store just a walk down the road from her house. Since we usually visited on a Sunday, the store was always closed when we were there, but Grandma would walk down the road with me and open the store so I could choose whatever piece of candy I wanted from the big glass display case.

The last visit I remember, we were standing behind the counter picking out my candy when two young neighborhood children entered. Grandma waited patiently for them to look at the entire display. They chose their candy and asked how much it cost. She asked how much they had. "A penny each," they replied. "Why, aren't you lucky, das's exactly vat it costs."

I remember this clearly, because that was the summer I learned to read and I saw the candy was marked at a much higher price and tried to correct Grandma. She shushed me, then after they left, explained that they would have been disappointed if she'd told them they couldn't afford the candy. "Vat does money matter for such tiny kinders?" She said as she hugged me tight, "Not everyone iss lucky to haf un Grandma mit a candy store."

I remember she had a thick German accent and sometimes had difficulty using the English language, but I never had trouble understanding her or the German words sprinkled throughout her speech like the sugar in her cinnamon rolls. I remember her well!

More on Grandma Mary Ann. 

Her husband was known as 'One-armed' Jack [Harper.] He lost his arm in the Civil War. I'm not sure how, since he was just a kid back then.

When they were older and their kids had grown, she divorced him and married a man named Jackson. I always knew her as "Grandma Jackson."

She was a liberated woman who lived her life as she believed it should be lived, with love and gusto. From the stories I was told, One-Armed Jack never liked to work and she made the money with her store and grew her vegetables and fruits and meats, etc. Once her kids were grown, she opted for a little romance and a man to help her make a living.

Leon Atkins looked very much like Jack Harper, but his personality matched Mary Ann's.

Mary Ann was plump. The only picture I have of her was taken around 1900-1905. She was tightly corseted in a silk taffeta looking dress, but she still looked very plump with round eyes in a round face and her hair tightly curled across her forehead.

I remember her in house dresses to her ankles and heavy shoes.

As a child I went to the reunion often and a few times as a young adult. I remember my 2nd cousins Pauline and Mary Ann very well.

I moved away from Texas in my early 30's and miss seeing all my cousins and aunts, but I always tell myself that some day....

Mary Ann's first husband was Jack Harper. It is pure conjecture on my side that Kenton Harper fathered Belle's children. Kenton was one of the agents in charge of  'the Little Trail of Tears' of 1851 when the Chickasaws were moved enmasse to the Indian Territories which later became Oklahoma. Belle was one of the survivors of that march. She hated whites fiercely, to the point that she couldn't stand her own grandchildren. My(Betty Ellen's) Aunt Dovie Harper was one of those grandchildren and she said that one didn't want to get caught too close to Grandma Belle! 

The Chickasaw nation fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War (They were British loyalist during the Revolutionary War).

When Belle died, the family carried her back to her people near Dennison(?) in Grayson Co., Tx. for their burial ceremonies.

The Chickasaw Nation dips into Texas in Grayson County Texas and that's where the Headquarters use to be. May be still.

A childhood friend of Lura Harper's said that she was the most prophetic person he ever met... is this where we get it??? Hmmmm...

I was standing on the sidewalk on Main Street in Nocona waiting for Daddy who was in the store. A small gray haired man walked up to me, "Excuse me, but are you by chance related to Lura Harper?" I acknowledged that I was her grand-daughter. He took off his hat, held it against his chest and said, "I would have known it if I'd met you on the streets of New York City. You are the spitting image of her."
"She and I were childhood friends, the best of pals. I loved her like a sister."

Lura's baby sister, Dovie, told me that she often spent the summer's with Lura and Paul. One of her fondest memories was a wash day.

They had a big black cast iron pot simmering over a fire where they scrubbed the clothes on a washboard. 

Lura was hanging clothes on the line when Paul rode up on his horse, jumped off and grabbed Lura around the waist to kiss her. Dovie and Leon giggled, Lura started to pull away, but then shrugged at the kids and kissed Paul back. This was about a year before Lura died.

Now I need an explaination why she spoke German as her first language!